Next to the back door in the kitchen is an old incoming water main... lead piping comes out of the ground, soldered to few inches of 0.5" copper piping, which is soldered to a grotty old stopcock, soldered to about a half-inch more copper, which is open to the atmosphere. The pipe is 'live'. The house is supplied from a modern plastic pipe next to the front door, ie direct from the street. Unfortunately there's no trace of any outside stopcock.
I'd like to lose the redundant water main (a) because with the stopcock, it sticks out about 4" from the wall preventing the washing machine being pushed back and (b) it looks like an accident waiting to happen!
Does anybody know if the water companies have any interest/liability here? I am worried that if stick my head above the parapet I will find myself being instructed to pay them to remove it or something!
What are my options? At worst I could just try capping off the exposed pipe with a solder fitting, but that would still leave the stopcock in the way, and a live pipe. The other one I suppose would be to freeze the copper pipe below the stopcock and chop it off before capping; but with no external stopcock to fall back on that would scare the daylights of me!
Thanks David